At BILSTER BERG: Rendezvous with the class 1 Mercedes from the penultimate DTM year 1994.
They were perhaps the most beautiful and spectacular racing touring cars of their era. But they only lived for four summers – technically too complex, too expensive with a season budget of 100 million Deutschmarks, and from 1995, with the last year of the DTM, the German Touring Car Championship, it got out of hand. What remained were high-tech pieces of art that still fascinate today. This also applies to the C-Class from AMG-Mercedes-Benz, which works driver Roland Asch drove to four second places and sixth place in the DTM championship in 1994. In 1995, Bernd Mayländer from Schorndorf took over the repainted year-old car. At BILSTER BERG, the completely overhauled original vehicle with a fresh drive train was put back into service – not for too long, after all, the rare and recently refurbished item should remain as good as new for as long as possible. We caught them anyway – and documented extremely rare impressions.
Extremely rare because the C-Class, which was specified in 1994 with a unit price of 750,000 Deutschmarks, is a veritable small-series example. The number of units produced per DTM season remained in the single digits. The technology was more than outstanding. Key aspect: The 2.5 liter V6 engine with an initial 430 hp, which was achieved at speeds in excess of 11,000 rpm. The Class 1 regulations introduced for the 1993 season stipulated that the engine had to be at least derived from a production unit – which does not mean that mass-production technology was actually used. On the contrary: the six-cylinder engine made of cast light metal was a thoroughbred racing engine at the level of Formula 1 at the time. A voluminous airbox was enthroned above the six intake funnels, supplied with fresh air through a particularly high-flow area in front of the windscreen. In general, the flow of the driving wind, the aerodynamics, played an increasingly important role.
And then the acoustics: the sound of the high-revving racing touring car, the last of its kind on a sheet steel bodyshell, towers all over the scenery …
DTM in the rearview mirror – BILSTER BERG Cars and Faces, Episode 04.22 – bonus material with a star.
In deutscher Sprache anschauen:
BILSTER BERG – Cars and Faces – Episode 04.2022: unsere Playlist.
DTM im Rückspiegel – BILSTER BERG Cars and Faces, Episode 04.2022 – Bonusmaterial mit Mercedes-Stern.
